On 8/16/05, Paweł 'Ausir' Dembowski fallout@lexx.eu.org wrote:
There is the problem that people may donate to the local chapter (everything but DB servers) *rather than* the Wikimedia Foundation in Florida (DB servers). One would want to make sure that a country's donations going to the chapter rather than the WMF would not leave a hole in the budget.
Well, there are many people who would donate to a local chapter but not to some distant Foundation in Florida, so I would imagine this would bring more money, not less. And can't the chapters themselves donate to the Foundation if it is short on money?
If local chapters "donate to the foundation" as such, it may be conceived by some national legislations as a way for the Foundation to take advantage of tax deductibility in the chapter's country and make the chapter just a "proxy" for the Foundation to receive money from everywhere. In this, it may not be the best way, but we are trying to find out what is the best way to make sure money coming in through local chapter is used "for all the projects, everywhere" (ie. including on servers and bandwidth, wherever they may be).
Different legislations imply different ways of doing it, but in the long run, I am pretty sure this will clear itself and happen in a smooth way.
Best,
Delphine